Be a Genie in Six Easy Steps (17 page)

“Hey,” marveled Milly, “this fake even shakes like the real thing.”

“It's not the book that's shaking,” said Michael as vibrations shuddered through the ground. “It's the whole tunnel!”

The lightbulb began to flicker, and more soil loosened
from the low ceiling.

“Something is approaching,” hissed Skribble, ducking hastily back down inside the real book.

Jason gulped. “The genies must have found us again!”

The children huddled together as a huge, grotesque shadow appeared at the far end of the tunnel.

“I
t's a monster!” yelled Milly.

“No.” Michael was staring down the tunnel in amazement. “It's…it's a
mole
. Look, it's a giant mole!”

Jason shook his head. “It's a normal-size mole. We're tiny down here, remember?”

Huge pink nose twitching, dark matted fur glinting in the flickering light, the gigantic mole filled the tunnel as it made its way blindly toward them.

Michael frowned. “What a weird thing to attack us with!”

“It's
not
actually attacking,” Jess observed. “Maybe it's just an ordinary mole passing through.”

“It can still squash us flat, though,” cried Jason. “Come on, Milly—
wish!
”

Milly was seized by sudden inspiration. “I wish my rabbit slippers were real, normal-size rabbits!”

“As you command!” Jess hollered.

Milly squealed as two rabbits shot up from the ground
and filled the tunnel completely. They faced the mole, sniffing it as it approached, blocking its way. The mole sniffed them back with a wet snuffling sound.

Michael raised an eyebrow. “Clash of the titans,” he said dryly.

“Maybe the genies wanted the mole to herd us back down the tunnel,” Jason reasoned. “Maybe they've set a trap there!”

“I wish one of the rabbits would burrow its way back up to the surface,” said Milly breathlessly. Jess snapped her fingers, and in a flash of light the rabbit duly obeyed, kicking up a huge amount of earth in its wake. The whole tunnel seemed ready to come crashing down on top of them before the giant bunny disappeared from view.

“What did you do that for, Mil?” said Michael angrily, brushing huge crumbs of earth from the real book.

Milly smiled slyly. “Because now, Sabik and Vega will think we've followed the rabbit out through that tunnel into the woods and go looking there—when
really
I'm going to wish us somewhere else!”

“Okay, that
is
pretty clever,” Michael conceded.

“Michael, why don't you be genie?” said Jess. “You took us to London that time and you got us back again in a tin can. I think you're best at going long distances.” She scooted back into the lamp.

“Genie be free,” said Milly, and Jess was catapulted back into the tunnel—without her coat and barefoot again. The remaining mega-bunny jumped in surprise, startling the mole, who scurried away from them back down the tunnel.

Michael gave Jess the real book and said, “Genie me!”

Jason quickly rubbed the side of the lamp. A moment later, Michael reappeared in his traditional cloud of smoke, wearing his huge beard and black ninja-style outfit.

“Ah, that's better,” he said, looking at his feet. “Fur-lined slippers.”

Jess nudged Jason. “Get on with it!”

“I wish we were…” Jason shrugged. “I wish we were all back to our normal size on a desert island in the South Pacific!”

“Gotcha,” said Michael.

There was a red flash of light, and then the world plunged into dizzying darkness. Jason kept tight hold of the lamp as he felt himself tumbling over and over and over….

But then suddenly his bare feet were half-buried in warm sand. Blazing sunshine prickled his skin. Opening his eyes, he found himself on a spotless stretch of white beach. A clear, deep blue sea lapped at the shore.

“Michael, you did it!” he exclaimed.

“Pretty cool, huh?” said Michael, grinning. “It's one of the Cook Islands, I think. We did them in geography. Some bloke lived alone here for ten years.”

Jess pointed grimly across the water. “I think our stay is going to be a bit shorter.”

Two specks had appeared on the horizon and were getting steadily closer.

“Oh, no,” breathed Jason, a familiar fear building inside him.

Sabik and Vega were gliding across the ocean toward them, as if standing on invisible surfboards.

“They've found us already!” said Milly despairingly. “I
didn't
put them off our trail after all!”

“Of course you didn't!” called Skribble from inside the book. “Every time magic is performed in this world, it leaves a mark, a trace, a trail. That is how this evil genie pair tracked the book down in the first place—with every step of training that you have passed, the magic trails it leaves have grown stronger. Now they shine out like bright beacons for Sabik and Vega to follow.”

Jess watched as the genies drew nearer. “But if they can follow our trail of magic,” she cried, “we'll
never
be able to escape them!”

Michael had an idea. “What if we left lots of trails—
false
trails? Then they wouldn't know which way to go.”

“Quick!” Milly urged them. The two genies were so close now that she could see their eyes glinting in the sunlight.

Jason nodded excitedly. “I wish that when we next use magic to travel, we leave a million magical paths leading in all directions to Mars and back!”

“Excellent wish!” thundered Michael.

Jess stuffed the real
Genie Handbook
up her pajama top, grabbed the decoy she had made for Milly, and hurled it with all her strength into the sea. “Fetch!” she yelled, and was gladdened to see Sabik and Vega veer off in hot pursuit of the book—buying Jason time.

“I wish we were in Mum and Mark's bookshop,” he whispered.

“Here we go!” Michael shouted. His beard glowed electric blue, and suddenly bright sparks of light seemed to shoot out of him, whip-cracking across the clear sky for miles in all directions.

Jason grabbed hold of Milly for support as Michael's genie magic sent the world tumbling again, like they were all caught inside a whirlpool. Jason felt himself falling through space, sucked down into nothingness….

Then, with a sickening jerk, he found himself stumbling into a bookcase and collapsing amid a hail of paperbacks.

“We made it,” Jess groaned, flat on her back in the
romantic fiction aisle. Milly sat beside her, clutching her head. Jess pulled the handbook from beneath her top and laid it carefully on Milly's lap.

Michael turned sharply to Jason. “What made you bring us here?”

“There's a saying,” said Jason, getting cautiously to his feet. “Where better to hide a tree than in a forest?”

Milly looked alarmed. “You're not going to wish we were all trees, are you?”

“No. But look around,” said Jason. “What do you see?”

“Tons of old books,” said Jess. Then she smiled. “Of course! Who would notice one more old book among this lot!”

“I thought we could hide the real handbook here, then wish ourselves somewhere else,” Jason explained, looking around the shelves for a likely slot. “By the time those genies realize the book in the sea isn't the
real
book, untangle all the magical trails we left behind, and work out where we've gone, Skribble might just have had time to think of a way to get us all out of this.”

“I
have
been thinking,” came Skribble's muffled tones. Milly opened the book and out he popped, looking very sorry for himself. “Your plan is good…but doomed to failure.”

Michael threw his beard over his shoulder impatiently. “What're you on about, Worm?”

“I mean that whatever we do, we cannot hide forever,” said Skribble. “You have bought us all valuable time…but Sabik and Vega will track us down. It is inevitable.”

Jess felt suddenly weary as she noticed the clock on the wall. “Look at the time. Six forty in the morning. All that effort, and we've only been on the run for about fifteen minutes!”

Jason's face paled. “Fifteen minutes? It feels more like fifteen days!”

“Look on the bright side,” said Michael moodily. “If we
are
zapped into magic dust, we won't be able to come to Dad and Ann's boring opening party!”

“That's not funny,” Jess snapped.

“Well,” said Milly firmly. “If we can't get away from Sabik and Vega…we'll have to get Sabik and Vega away from
us
. If only we could put them back in their lamps—they'd have to stay in there then, until someone summoned them!”

For a few moments, no one spoke as her words sank in.

Jason smiled at her. “Milly…that's brilliant!”

Skribble looked up from the book, frowning. “You know, even as you spoke, Milly, I had hit upon that very same plan—to send them back to their lamps by using your
human-genie magic!”

“The worm's nicking your idea, Mil,” said Michael, giving her a thumbs-up. “Must be a winner.”

“But hang on, our magic only lasts until sunset,” Jason said. “Then they'll be free again!”

“No!” said Jess. “Remember when Michael was stuck inside the lamp in Ollie's room? Skribble said he might be stuck there forever!”

Skribble nodded excitedly. “No genie, whether trainee or master, can emerge from his lamp until the spell of release is said or the vessel is rubbed. If you can get the genies into their lamps, then it doesn't matter that your magic will wear off at sunset—they will be held there by the ancient laws of geniedom!”

“Get wishing then, Jase,” said Michael, “and I'll get stuffing those genies back in their lamps!”

“The task is beyond you, my boy,” Skribble told him. “It is beyond any single one of you to perform. These genies are extremely powerful.”

“They've been pretty soft on us so far,” Michael argued. “They haven't killed us or anything.”

“They're toying with us,” said Jason darkly. “I bet they just want to get Skribble and the book back safely—then they're
really
going to punish us.”

Milly sat down heavily beside a case of secondhand
crime novels. “But what are we going to do? If one of us can't do it—”

“—maybe all
four
of us can.” Jess looked around at Michael, Milly, and Jason. “I mean, right from the start, we know the book's been judging us all together.”

“A sort of group-genie,” Jason agreed.

Michael clicked his fingers. “Maybe, somehow, if we could all get into the lamp together…”

“Then Skribble could rub the lamp and bring us
all
out as genies!” Milly cried.

“Four times the power!” said Jess.

Jason turned to Skribble. “Would that work? Do you think we could do it?”

The book had already started to tremble, and Milly quickly set it down on the floor. “My tail's tingling!” gasped Skribble. “Yes, I…I think the book agrees! You, Michael—revert to your usual dreary appearance at once. Everyone must start the spell in the same state.”

Michael spiraled off back inside the lamp. “Genie be free,” commanded Jason.

In the blink of an eye, Michael was back. “Come on, then!”

Skribble looked at them. “You all know what to do?”

“Yes,” said Jess, and the others nodded. Jason set the lamp down on the floor beside Skribble. Then he joined
Michael, Jess, and Milly, standing a small distance away, facing the lamp.

Each of them took a deep, deep breath.

“Genie us!”
they shouted.

Michael caught a crazy corkscrew glimpse of the others whizzing through the air, shrinking in size just as he was, as the lamp's spout loomed up like the mouth of a bright brass dragon. They circled down inside its musty, metallic belly until at last they lay still, panting on the hard floor.

“Okay,” said Michael, picking himself up. He held out both hands. “Are we gonna do this?”

Without hesitation, Jess reached out and took his hand. Michael took Milly's, and she and Jess took Jason's.

“We're up for the challenge,” Jason said, no waver in his voice.

“We can do it,” Milly declared. “I know we can.”

Then, before anyone could say another word, they felt a warm, swirling sensation and were sucked back up into the air and spat out through the spout, still holding hands. They made a perfect landing beside the cash register in a swirl of magnificent pinky-gray smoke and a slew of silver sparks.

Skribble was watching from beside the lamp. It might have been Milly's imagination, but she thought she saw a
glimmer of pride in his beady eyes.

“What is your wish?” Milly asked the bookworm, in perfect time with Michael, Jason, and Jess.

“I wish that you would cast Sabik and Vega back into their lamps,” Skribble cried, “wherever they may be!”

“Your wish is our command,” boomed the four genies-in-training.

Milly closed her eyes and pictured Sabik and Vega. She felt power flowing into her fingertips from Michael and Jason, and sent energy of her own back to them and to Jess. It was a wonderful, intoxicating feeling.
We can do anything,
she thought.
Together, we really can!

In her mind, she pictured the two dark-eyed genies. Then she placed two lamps beside them, blurry at first but hardening into focus. She heard Michael, Jess, and Jason speaking in her head, and added her own voice to the chant. “Go back…go back…. Back to your lamp you must go….
Back to your lamp you must go!”

“It's working!” Skribble said in delight. “Yes, it's working.”

I know it's working,
thought Milly dreamily.
I can
feel
it working.

“Good children! Fine, upstanding,
out
standing children!” Skribble kept babbling on and on. “Of course, you are highly fortunate to have had as fine a teacher as
me, someone who saw your potential and…” Abruptly, his voice dropped to a shocked whisper. “Oh, no…
no…!”

“What's wrong?” Milly asked, opening her eyes.

“Stop, children!” squawked Skribble, staring at them in alarm. “You must stop!”